Royal Mail readies for battle with shareholders

Royal Mail will this week face a stormy shareholder protest when the company holds its first annual meeting since its controversial privatisation.

The 500-year-old company is likely to face questions about the £1.35m pay package awarded to the chief executive, Moya Greene, and its warning that the universal service obligation – the pledge to deliver to every address in the country for the same price six days a week – is under threat.

The company, which the government privatised in October 2013 at a £1bn loss to the taxpayer according to a committee of MPs, will hold its first annual meeting as a FTSE 100 firm in Birmingham on Thursday. It will also update the City on its latest financial performance, which has been worrying some analysts, in an interim management statement on Tuesday.